The Rant

Aura of Annoyance

As if having bronchitis in mid-December was not bad enough, now I have a low-grade cold. Spent most of yesterday on the futon wrapped-up in a blanket with heater kicking out some extra heat. Amazing what a little bit of extra warmth on your feet does for your attitude. Managed to stay awake through a couple of movies. Drifted in and out a bit through some TV that I had dvr'd over the past few weeks. You know - CSI, Nip/Tuck, Lost, stuff like that. I don't watch much TV, and I rarely watch live TV. I almost always dvr what I want to see and watch it over the weekend or after working out.

Movies - Dodgeball. I was told this was funny. It was, and I don't usually like Ben Stiller - but he played that character so well. The inflatable jock and the pizza scene just killed me. And Vince Vaughn, so many odd roles he has played. The Dodgeball announcer on ESPN 8 "The Ocho" was just as over-the-top as you would expect, doing the play-by-play on the Dodgeball tournament, "Bigger than the World Series!" Watch for "Wash" from Firefly! And Rip Torn as the once Dodgeball champ.

Age of Innocence. Good Movie. Period piece - 1870s New York, the upper echelon. The story of a family, mostly 1 man, of one of the most powerful families in the social circle. He is to marry a very tasty Winona Ryder, but falls in love with her cousin, the still married Countess Olenska (the always lovely Michelle Pfeiffer). He stays with his betrothed, who is much smarter and worldly than she ever lets on. And in the end, long after she has died, his eldest son invites him on a trip to Europe and brings him to visit the Countess. He cannot even bring himself to visit her, for now she represents all the possibilities of what could have been. Sad.

Well, back to work now, tunes are cranking and I am done with my Unix file processing...